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Minnesota House Speaker Supports Joint Deal

MINNESOTA – As reported by the Minnesota Star-Tribune: "When resistance meets a 4,000-slot machine casino complex run by the state and three northern Indian bands, what's the answer? Only in the political world could it well be more slot machines.

"As news of the impending deal between Gov. Tim Pawlenty and the Red Lake, Leech Lake and White Earth bands filtered out on Thursday, House Speaker Steve Sviggum, R-Kenyon, said that linking the Indian casino proposal with a proposal to put slots at Canterbury Park racetrack -- the so-called racino -- might assure passage for both.

"…Canterbury is seeking 3,000 slot machines. Combined with the 4,000-plus sought by the northern bands, that could mean adding 7,000 metro-area slot machines in a market that now has about 20,000 slots statewide.

"House Republicans have voted for a racino before, and House Majority Leader Erik Paulsen, R-Eden Prairie, said many of them prefer to keep gambling at existing venues.

"Canterbury has offered to pay $100 million a year to the state in return for slots. That's as much as Pawlenty initially had planned to get from a metro casino when he proposed it as part of his budget last month. Doubling the amount of money to the state available for schools, health care and other necessities might prove irresistible to legislators in the end, Sviggum said.

"…Burnsville and Albertville have been mentioned as possible casino sites, and officials of both cities said Thursday that they could accommodate such a project…"

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